


all that remains

by sweetautumnwine



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Character Death, I guess???, Lich! Taako, Sibling Bonding, Spoilers, The Stolen Century, bc i am a mess i guess, featuring the two characters who are the hardest for me to write, soft angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-07 16:49:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16857676
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sweetautumnwine/pseuds/sweetautumnwine
Summary: Taako has some trouble adjusting to the lich life. Lup stays by his side.





	all that remains

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by the song Skulls by Bastille. Love Bastille, love this song, and the lyrics? Super applicable. Was gonna make this longer, but didn't, and here we are, with a rambling mess, featuring more commas than what's necessary. Enjoy.

Death had become familiar.

 

The shock of it lessened over time; a flash of pain, an abdominal tugging, then weightlessness, a familiar form, unbound by the physical. This form, chosen first by Lup and Barry, was strategic. Some days, Taako wondered why he’d mimicked their choice. He couldn’t feel the wind, smell the sea, or embrace his sister. He longed for an itch, the sting of an insect’s bite, or pangs of hunger.

 

In his lich form, the emptiness grew like a void, a consuming force gnawing its way out, and it was the closest thing to  _ feeling _ he could experience.

 

He hated it.

 

Dying was a habit, hard to break, not quick addictive as smoking or cheating cards, more akin to the compulsion of kicking pebbles down a street, reveling in elation when the stones ricochet off the curb and land, as though fated, before one’s foot, readied for propulsion.

 

Taako hunched forward, elbows denting his thighs above the knee, as he looked out upon another world, beautiful in its own way, full of foreign creatures and foreign plants and foreign languages. The site was familiar, the experiences not so much.

 

Even in this form, he remained grounded, forcing his body to anchor itself, to grant him the illusion of weight. Unaffected by gravity, Taako felt directionless, as though he might levitate into the sun if he were careless.

 

He swung his legs as dual pendulums over the edge of the cliff, watching the suns circle and set, and sighed, blowing out his bangs.

 

“Moping again, babe?” Lup drifted over, her toes skimming above the ground. She had taken to the lich existence easily, unexpectedly so. She moved about like a ghost even in her physical form, graceful movements made spectral, ethereal, in their fluidity. “You died a stupid death, but you’ll be right back in your beautiful body next cycle.”

 

He knew she was overplaying her optimism for his benefit, and that soured his expression. As well as they knew each other, as much as they could finish one another’s thoughts and sentences alike, Lup still didn’t understand that it wasn’t  _ his _ death that upset him. “I know.”

 

“At least  _ I  _ died trying to protect you,” she continued. “Pretty heroic stuff. Did you see Barry swoon?”

 

“Mmhmm. He’s a sucker,” Taako said weakly.

 

She settled down beside him, crossing her legs and hovering above the ground as though in meditation, hands raised above her knees, palms born to the sky. “You aren’t a lich virgin anymore, Taako. This isn’t the first time we’ve died.”

 

“Nope.”

 

“Probably won’t be the last.”

 

Taako’s ears twitched, drooping under the brim of his hat, and he tugged it lower to hide his face. “Yeah.”

 

She punched his shoulder. The gesture was symbolic, but she had enough of a grasp on her form to gauge the distance, knew he could sense her spectral knuckles grazing him without impact or pain. 

 

“Hey,” she said, easing onto the grass beside him. “At least we have each other.”

 

“Yeah, it could be worse.”

 

Scowling, she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Can it,” she said. “You love me.”

 

He looped his arm through hers and managed a smile.  _ You’re all I’ve got left _ , he couldn’t say.

 

Instead, he trained his eyes on the smokestacks in the distance, wondering what the others were doing, if they’d even noticed his absence. Of course they had, he reasoned; they’d watched him die, had seen his form rise, like smoke, from his body, again and again. But they had to focus. At least he wasn’t a liability in this form, had nothing to lose or gain.

 

All he had was Lup.

 

He leaned into her, the boundary between their energies like static humming at the borders of their forms: the closest thing to intimacy they could muster. On this cliff, it was like they perched at the edge of the universe, untouched by anything, even each other, and Taako sighed, knowing that dawn would still break, and at the end of the year, they would wake in bodies they’d forgotten how to use.

 

But at least, even if their steps were unsteady and their futures uncertain, they would have each other.

 

“Yeah,” he said, closing his eyes as he broke the silence. “I guess I do.”

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments always appreciated!


End file.
